And even more so when WiF has been "coming soon" for the last SEVEN years!

Boy I am going to enjoy crushing Denmark after that remark. In fact if Poland survives the Wehrmacht after the first round I will let Italy kick Denmarks butt, in the next impulse and Italy cant beat anyone, errr maybe Ethiopia but then again maybe I will have Ethiopia crush Denmark. Does Denmark have an army?

I just lifted this quote from the New Titles Announced for 2012 thread.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

We are far from done making monster wargames. I've been spending a huge amount of time helping get World in Flames finished as well as moving War in the West forward and the "War in Europe" goal that we announced is probably the most ambitious monster wargame project we've attempted.

Regards,

- Erik

I don't know Erik or what he can do to move WiF along...but as Matrix Director of Product Development it can't be a bad thing that he is spending a huge amount of time here.

I may not agree with everything about this release plan, from what little we know of it. But I do wish you guys all the best.

Project Management I monitored all the threads in the MWIF World in Flames forum daily.

Hardware and Software Matrix Games programmers fixed the problem with dropped server messages when using the NetPlay Forum to communicate with other players that are logged in. That capability is crucial for starting/restarting a NetPlay game. The same correction was made to the game server, which is used when playing an game over the internet. They also enabled deleting Seeking Opponent requests. This means that players are able to delete their posted requests to the Seeking Opponent database once an opponent has been found; therefore all listed posts should be active.

The open items for Theme Engine remain unchanged: (1) scroll bars for the detailed map, and (2) its inability to display detailed listings of file directories (i.e., the dates and stuff when opening or saving a file).

Beta Testing I released versions 9.06.00 (9 fixes), 9.06.01 (10 fixes), 9.06.02 (1 fix), 9.06.03 (8 fixes), 9.06.04 (6 fixes), 9.06.05 (12 fixes), and 9.06.07 (19 fixes) to the beta testers in April. Version 9.06.06 was used by me but never uploaded to the beta testers. This is about my normal number of new versions (7) but half my typical fixes (65).

One reason there were so few fixes this month is that I have been running alpha testing for NetPlay, besides being time consuming (working with two computers), that means I was both discovering and fixing bugs rather than dividing the labor between the beta testers (finding) and me (fixing).

I fixed one bug in creating detailed maps which must have dated back to 2005. I’m kind of baffled that anything worked with this bug present (there were two separate copies of the detailed maps). See the comments regarding NetPlay below for most of the changes I made for the new versions I uploaded for the beta testers.

Saved Games I revised the format for saved games (*.GAM) a couple of times so it contains the necessary data for switching decision makers (e.g., USSR, US, Italy) during setup for a NetPlay game. This was the reason version 9.06.06 was never uploaded for the beta testers.

Restoring NetPlay games now works. To accomplish this required a handful of coding changes. For instance, the autosaved games needed to be synchronized so they are created simultaneously on all computers. The program checks that both players are restoring the same game at the same point in the sequence of play. To make that determination, the program uses the Game Number and the Next Entry Number, which are written out to the GAM file. Prior to restoring a game, players should check those numbers to make sure they match. The program displays that information for each saved game when a player ‘considers’ whether or not to restore a game. When NetPlay executes, it checks for matching numbers and reports any discrepancy. The same system will be used for PBEM games.

Map, Units, and Scenarios I removed Ceylon as part of the setup area for the Commonwealth in Guadalcanal. I also updated the naval unit writeups with the latest from Rob J.

Optional Rules Nothing new.

Game Engine Getting NetPlay to work forced me to revise the code for the Weather phase. It is now what I consider ‘beautiful’ code. Rarely do I go to the effort of writing code that might be considered beautiful. But the requirements for the weather phase are both few and weird. Having the weather preset for some scenarios but not for all of them is one strange aspect. Having it rolled every other impulse is another. In addition, MWIF rolls for the weather and reports it to both players. In practice that means reporting it for one major power for each player. After all players have closed the weather report form, the game advances to the next phase.

This combination of unusual requirements dictated that the code had to be crystal clear. Previously I had been patching the CWIF code to implement the weather phase, but the result became so confusing. So I more or less started over. Now the weather phase has its own module, similar in structure to all the other phases. Not a lot of code but it’s very easy to understand how it handles the unusual weather rules.

Setup is one of the most complex phases and I finally admitted that it also needed its own module with 3 subphases: (1) lend lease at the start of the game between major power on the same side, (2) placing each major power’s units on the map, and (3) placing partisan units on the map after all other units have been set up. I think of these as: lend lease, set up major powers, and set up partisans. It was a struggle to get these to execute correctly for NetPlay.

Lend lease involves all the major powers on a side which make decisions simultaneously. On the other hand, setting up the major powers is processed by each major power in a rigidly defined order. That is also preceded by a scrap units sub-subphase prior to randomly drawing units from the force pools. Always a pain to code was setting up the Nationalist Chinese and then the Communist Chinese - because they are one “major power” set up by two major powers. Setting up partisans is similar to setting up major powers, but with the kicker that there might not be an available hex for some units (“No room for the partisan unit on the map.”).

Many other phases of the game needed revisions to support NetPlay. The most common problem is how to process an event so it is only done once, by one major power, but gets reported to all the players (e.g., setting up reserves). Again, the changes I made here were also required by PBEM. Mandatory DOW on major powers was a major hassle to revise but that now functions correctly. I currently have a similar problem with the mandatory DOW by Germany on Poland - that’s next on my list of things to fix. Player Interface Nothing new.

Internet - NetPlay I spent the month mostly working on NetPlay. I finished the code for working with the JSON data structure, which is used for Seeking Opponent requests. Players can post a request and reply to other players requests. The intention of this functionality is to enable players to easily find opponents for NetPlay games.

I also finished the code for players to send and receive messages and game data when playing over the internet. Getting that accomplished let me take the last couple of screenshots for the Players Manual. A typical game starts with 13,000 game record logs being created and transmitted between computers. That’s a pretty severe test for the game server.

Sending and receiving messages while logged into the NetPlay Forum is useful for resolving any outstanding issues about starting a NetPlay game (e.g., negotiating about optional rules). It can also be helpful just before starting/restarting a game to coordinate when to start and how long the session will last.

One aspect of NetPlay that I now have working correctly is that the flags in the main form accurately report which major powers currently have decisions to make. Those flags also indicate whether the local player controls the major power or not: a large image means the local player control the major power, a small image means he does not. In addition there is a little ‘Waiting’ message in the main form when a player is waiting for another player to make a decision.

I’ve been able to run the Barbarossa, Global War, and Missed the Bus scenarios through to the completion of setup in NetPlay mode. A couple of beta testers have been able to do the same for Global War. I’ve actually run Barbarossa through several impulses, but that was by taking mostly Pass actions for both sides. Testing NetPlay takes a lot of effort because it involves either two people or running two computers with a lot of back and forth. Now that I have saving and restoring NetPlay games working it will be much easier. That starting every game from the very beginning got old super fast.

PBEM Nothing new, other than the comments above about saved games and the game engine.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) In making changes to support NetPlay I reviewed, and made a couple of changes to, the code determining which major powers are decision makers (I was able to reduce the code from over 1000 lines to 825). The important thing was to enable a player, who currently has no decisions to make, to have full access to the map, units, and various forms to review the status of his position vis-a-vis his opponent.

Another change I made for NetPlay, that has direct bearing on the AI Opponent code, was that I created a separate thread to run some code “in the background”. It is a minor technicality but I am happy to now have a working example of how to code background threads using Delphi. Virtually all the AIO code will execute in separate (i.e., background) threads. The intent is to have the AIO figure out what to do, while its human opponent is moving and clicking the mouse and using the keyboard. When the time comes for the AIO to decide something, it should be able to do so quickly.

Player’s Manual I have finished with the text and screenshots for the Players Manual and Rules as Coded. Next up for my involvement with the documentation is proof reading the final layouts for how those will appear in print.

Tutorials, Training Videos, and Context Sensitive Help Content Sensitive Help messages are finished (350+ messages totaling 693 kb). The 20 tutorials are also finished, although Rob W. is still worrying over the text for the interactive tutorials (261 kb). Rob wrote the text for all 10 of the interactive tutorials and Peter v. diligently went through them all, checking for clarity and typos. I made a bunch of code changes to support the interactive tutorials; there are still a couple of coding loose ends that I need to look into.

All that really remains here is for me to re-record the 6th and create the last three Training Videoes: 10, 11, and 12. The 6th (main form and drop down menus) needs redoing because I have seriously modified some of the forms since I recorded that video in December of 2009. The last 3 training videos are for naval movement, naval combat, and production/politics.

Historical Video, Music, and Sound Effects I now have all the files I need for this except for the Italian National Anthem. For that I have a MP3 file, but I need a WAV file. All the sound files are WAV and the video files are WMV.

Hi ! For first, sorry for my very, very poor English... I pretend only to speak English... Anyway, a little thing: during the WWII the Italian National Anthem was the "Marcia Reale" ("Royal March"). Now the Italy is a Republic and so we use an other Anthem, "Fratelli d'Italia", "Italian brothers" (a lot more nice, IMVHO...)

Unlucky, I didnt found any file WAV of these Anthem, sorry, but perhaps you can use the file mp3 and change the extension. Bye bye Toni (an Italian addicted to WiW since from the 1991...)(22 games played, 21 defeats... A true World record, I suppose...) P.S. An old Italian popular sentence tell so: "Better a bad game without AI today (rectius, for exemple the 4 July 2012....) than a marvellous game with AI tomorrow/never...

"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman

Hi ! For first, sorry for my very, very poor English... I pretend only to speak English... Anyway, a little thing: during the WWII the Italian National Anthem was the "Marcia Reale" ("Royal March"). Now the Italy is a Republic and so we use an other Anthem, "Fratelli d'Italia", "Italian brothers" (a lot more nice, IMVHO...)

Unlucky, I didnt found any file WAV of these Anthem, sorry, but perhaps you can use the file mp3 and change the extension. Bye bye Toni (an Italian addicted to WiW since from the 1991...)(22 games played, 21 defeats... A true World record, I suppose...) P.S. An old Italian popular sentence tell so: "Better a bad game without AI today (rectius, for exemple the 4 July 2012....) than a marvellous game with AI tomorrow/never...

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you very much for the information on the Italian national anthem. That helps me understand what to look for.

Obviously, it's a false interpretation of the Maya's calendar, and in any case it was impossible for that people to imagine the exact day of the end of the word... There was even a movie (a very bad movie, IMNSHO...) about this doomsday, by Roland Emerich, called "2012"...

Obviously, it's a false interpretation of the Maya's calendar, and in any case it was impossible for that people to imagine the exact day of the end of the word... There was even a movie (a very bad movie, IMNSHO...) about this doomsday, by Roland Emerich, called "2012"...

Obviously, it's a false interpretation of the Maya's calendar, and in any case it was impossible for that people to imagine the exact day of the end of the word... There was even a movie (a very bad movie, IMNSHO...) about this doomsday, by Roland Emerich, called "2012"...

Bye Bye Toni P.S. Thanks to you, dear Shannon, for your polite words and for your incredible work for all us Wif's maniacs.

Are you saying I was telling a little(or big) white lie? Me??

_____________________________

"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman

Obviously, it's a false interpretation of the Maya's calendar, and in any case it was impossible for that people to imagine the exact day of the end of the word... There was even a movie (a very bad movie, IMNSHO...) about this doomsday, by Roland Emerich, called "2012"...

Obviously, it's a false interpretation of the Maya's calendar, and in any case it was impossible for that people to imagine the exact day of the end of the word... There was even a movie (a very bad movie, IMNSHO...) about this doomsday, by Roland Emerich, called "2012"...

Obviously, it's a false interpretation of the Maya's calendar, and in any case it was impossible for that people to imagine the exact day of the end of the word... There was even a movie (a very bad movie, IMNSHO...) about this doomsday, by Roland Emerich, called "2012"...

Obviously, it's a false interpretation of the Maya's calendar, and in any case it was impossible for that people to imagine the exact day of the end of the word... There was even a movie (a very bad movie, IMNSHO...) about this doomsday, by Roland Emerich, called "2012"...

Bye Bye Toni P.S. Thanks to you, dear Shannon, for your polite words and for your incredible work for all us Wif's maniacs...

Thanks, I knew that it will be in 2012 according to that calendar, but I didn't know it would be in December.

I even saw the film.

quote:

quote:

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Thanks, I knew that it will be in 2012 according to that calendar, but I didn't know it would be in December.

I even saw the film.

HA, love that image.

_____________________________

"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."- W.T. Sherman

Maya...an italian comic actor say " they had the end of world date! how we can trust it if they didnt know theyr own end date!?".

back to topic, i'm an WiF players from years, and i think that this game can give pathos only if played against other human players. there are too many variables that an AI cannot made, chose or think . AI will be usable only for early (imho) tutorial.

Could we get some update on how the parser for LAIO (Language for an Artificial Intelligence Opponent) scripts is coming along, whether scripts are being developed yet, and how any of that is going? It appears that the TO, AO, LR, and SAG values are in place and ready to go. It's understandable that NetPlay features need to be worked out but odd that there hasn't been much parallel activity with the AI development for the past several months. Anything? Thanks!

Could we get some update on how the parser for LAIO (Language for an Artificial Intelligence Opponent) scripts is coming along, whether scripts are being developed yet, and how any of that is going? It appears that the TO, AO, LR, and SAG values are in place and ready to go. It's understandable that NetPlay features need to be worked out but odd that there hasn't been much parallel activity with the AI development for the past several months. Anything? Thanks!

The monthly status reports section on the AIO is accurate.

I have been finding that any slight deviation from my standards in processing the sequence of play and determining "who needs to decide" causes problems. In solitaire mode, small quirks aren't a concern, since one player is playing both sides and all the major powers. In addition, everything is stored on one computer, so the variables are all up-to-date and accurate.

But for NetPlay all those assumptions go out the window. Absolute precision is required for advancing through all 152 phases/subphases/sub-subphases/digressions. Even the tiniest of errors causes the program to halt, while one computer waits for the other (which never responds).

Fixing this stuff takes time because I need to run two computers at once. Even with my wife sitting at the second computer, there are times when I need to switch seats (e.g., when setting up the Germans).

All of the newly imposed rigor is necessary for PBEM and AIO. The latter is somewhat more forgiving since all the variables are on one computer. But making sure the human/AIO is the decider is crucial. For instance, the human is going to want to see what the computer decides for initiative rolls and going first, rather than just simply being informed that the AIO has rerolled, won the initiative, is going first, has made the weather roll, decided on all actions for its major powers and wants to know if the human is going to fly CAP for port attacks.

An orderly progression through the sequence of play keeping everyone informed is important (in my opinion).

As for the script parser, I have set that aside - in general it is best if I only focus on two things at once. This month I am dividing my time between fixing sequence of play bugs and NetPlay bugs.